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The keyboard arrangement of the Overture to Esther is from a version in the British Library, written between 1737 and 1739 by John Christopher Smith, Handel’s musical assistant and amanuensis and pupil of Thomas Roseingrave. This transcription differs in quality as it is much more likely to be in Handel’s own hand as according to Handelian scholar and editor, Professor Terence Best suggests, ‘because of the extensive re-composition, particularly in the first and last movements’. Handel directed a successful performance of his oratorio Esther with organ concertos in 1742 at Fishamble Street, Dublin.

The 1732 version of Esther conducted by Bernard Gates took the original 1718 Cannons overture and expanded its scoring to include violas and a second oboe, although they only doubled existing lines: the oboe largely followed the second violin part, and the violas doubled the bass line up an octave. The original overture had been indebted to the B flat major Trio Sonata (Op 2 No 3) for its second and third movements, reversing the Trio Sonata movement order. The first movement of the oratorio overture was newly composed, setting gentle dotted rhythms over a walking bass. The second movement, in later oratorios usually a lively Allegro, was also gentle, but the final Allegro (rescoring the second movement of the Trio Sonata) was a lively, slightly academic fugue with an especially demanding part for the first oboe, whose nine-bar ‘break’ of unceasing semiquavers suggests that Handel’s principal oboe must have possessed a mighty pair of lungs.

Haman: I’ll hear no more; it is decreed, All the Jewish race shall bleed. Hear and obey, what Haman’s voice commands. Hath not the Lord of all the East Giv’n all his pow’r into my hands? Hear, all ye nations far and wide, Which own our monarch’s sway, Hear and obey.

Act 1 Scene 1 No 2. Air: Pluck root and branch from out the land (Haman)

Haman: Pluck root and branch from out the land: Shall I the God of Israel fear? Let Jewish blood dye ev’ry hand, Nor age, nor sex I spare. Raze, raze their temples to the ground, And let their place no more be found.

First Israelite: Tune your harps to cheerful strains, Moulder idols into dust. Great Jehovah lives and reigns, We in great Jehovah trust.

Esther was probably the work through which John Beard’s vocal and musical gifts first came to the attention of Handel. It had been performed for the Duke of Chandos in about 1720 but afterwards was unperformed for over a decade. A private performance on 23 February 1732, organised by Bernard Gates, featured all ten of his Chapel Royal trebles, including the sixteen-year-old Beard. The anonymous libretto is based on a play by Jean Racine which is itself based on a story from the biblical Book of Esther, in which the eponymous Israelite risks execution in order to persuade her husband, the Persian King Assuerus, to prevent the genocide of her people. “Tune your harps”, in which an Israelite exhorts his compatriots to celebrate their faith, was not sung by Beard in any of the numerous revivals and versions of Esther in which he appeared, but he did perform it as a concert piece at the King’s Theatre, Haymarket on 16 April 1751 in a charity concert in aid of the Fund for the Support of Decay’d Musicians.

Israelite: Now persecution shall lay by her iron rod; Esther is queen, and Esther serves the living God.

Tune your harps to cheerful strains, Moulder idols into dust! Great Jehovah lives and reigns, We in great Jehovah trust.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)and others

With ‘Haman and Mordecai’ we also return to the music of Esther, for it seems that the 1720 performing version of the Masque may well have been given this new title. At the start of the work the Jews, persecuted by Haman, rejoice because Esther has been made queen. Before the general songs of praise begin, a single Israelite is provided with one of Handel’s most wonderful arias. Over an accompaniment of pizzicato strings an oboe floats the most exquisite solo line, joined after the first phrase in duet by the vocal soloist. Here is Handel’s writing at its most radiant, creating a magically transparent texture for one of his most ravishing melodies, and sharing that melody (as he does, for instance, in the Ode Eternal source of light divine) between the solo voice and an equally important obbligato instrumental line.

Priest of the Israelites: How have our sins provok’d the Lord! Wild persecution has unsheath’d the sword. Haman hath sent forth his decree: The sons of Israel all Shall in one ruin fall. Methinks I hear the mother’s groans, While babes are dashed against the stones! I hear the infant’s shriller screams, Stabb’d at the mother’s breast! Blood stains the mur’drer’s vest, And through the city flows in streams.

Assueras: How can I stay, when love invites? I come, my queen, to chaste delights. With joy, with pleasure I obey, To thee I give the day.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)and others

Esther, as has been explained above, was a watershed in Handel’s compositional career. As a whole, the oratorio was not one of his most notable works, being hastily thrown together on an uneven libretto which makes following the story quite a challenge to anyone who has not read the full version in the Bible. Half the numbers were recycled from other works (not that this should ever be a reason for writing off one of Handel’s oratorios); on the other hand, now freed from the restrictions of the small orchestra at Cannons, Handel was able to expand his instrumental and vocal forces. Esther was constantly revived and altered: there were two pairs of performances in 1733, eight in 1735, two more in 1737, another in 1740, three in 1742 and single performances in 1751 and 1757. King Assueras (the spelling of whose name Handel later changed to Ahasuerus) has recently married Esther; the monarch has given a decree that anyone who enters his presence without permission shall be put to death. Esther nonetheless enters, is rebuked and forgiven and then, instead of giving her message (to beg for pardon for Mordecai), she invites the king and Haman to dinner. Quite how long Assueras stays at dinner is not certain, but his response is the lively aria ‘How can I stay, when love invites’, after which an Israelite notes that the king ‘to the queen’s apartment goes’. We can presume that the bedroom visit which immediately follows this aria is not one in which the newly-weds discuss matters of state.

Esther: O gracious King, my people spare, For in their lives, you strike at mine. Reverse the dire decree, The blow is aimed at Mordecai and me. And is the fate of Mordecai decreed, Who, when the ruffian’s sword Sought to destroy my royal Lord, Brought forth to light the desp’rate deed.

Assuerus: Yes, yes, I own: To him alone, I owe my life and throne. Say then, my Queen, who dares pursue The life to which reward is due?

Esther:’Tis Haman’s hate That signed his fate.

Assuerus: I swear by yon great globe of light Which rules the day, That Haman’s sight Shall never more behold the golden ray.

Esther: Flatt’ring tongue, no more I hear thee! Vain are all thy cruel wiles! Bloody wretch, no more I fear thee, Vain thy frowns and vain thy smiles! Tyrant, when of pow’r possess’d, Now thou tremblest, when distress’d.

Assuerus: Guards, seize the traitor, bear him hence! Death shall reward the dire offence. To Mordecai be honour paid: The royal garment bring, My diadem shall grace his head, Let him in triumph through the streets be led, Who sav’d the King.